India Pulling Out Of Sierra Leone

In a surprise move, India said Wednesday it plans to withdraw its entire 3,000-strong contingent from the 13,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, dealing another blow to the embattled mission trying to help restore peace after eight years of civil war.

The announcement left the United Nations scrambling to find replacements for the Indians, who had the second-largest contingent in the mission after Nigeria, and appeared to delay even further plans for beefing up the force to 20,500 personnel.

India's U.N. Mission denied that criticism of the mission it headed or disputes between the Indian force commander and his Nigerian subordinates and other officials played any part in the decision to withdraw.

The head of the Nigerian army had called for Major-General Vijay Jetley to resign after he reportedly accused Nigerian officers of undermining the U.N. mission and profiting from Sierra Leone's diamond deposits in a memo published by two newspapers.

"We have decided to withdraw from Sierra Leone as part of a routine rotation out of the mission so as to give other member states a chance to participate in the mission," a spokesman for India's U.N. Mission said.

"This decision was not influenced in any way by the alleged controversy over the supposed leaking of a memo," the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

India is coordinating the timetable of the withdrawal with the U.N. Secretariat "in such a way so as to enable it to find suitable replacements," the spokesman said.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed that India had informed the United Nations of its intent to withdraw, and that Secretary-General Kofi Annan was already in contact with several potential troop contributors to replace them.

"The performance of all Indian officers has been outstanding," Eckhard said in a statement.

The Indian announcement came after the Security Council temporarily extended the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone until December 31 to give the United Nations more time to round up troops for a major increase in the force size.

The council had planned to vote Wednesday on a British-sponsored resolution to beef up the current mission from 13,000 to 20,500-strong in order to counter rebel attacks and exert government authority throughout the war-ravaged West African country.

Without firm offers for the additional 7,500 troops, the council agreed to a U.N. request to put off a vote until Secretary-General Kofi Annan consults with more potential troop contributors. With the departure of the Indians, he must now find over 10,500 troops.

While the new mandate keeps the force in Sierra Leone until the end of the year, the council hopes to approve the troop increase by October 31, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said.

Greenstock stressed that the delay in approving the troop increase showed no lack of commitment on the part of the council to bolster the U.N. mission. The mission, knon as UNAMSIL, fell into disarray after 500 peacekeepers were taken hostage by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front in May.

The attacks shattered a peace agreement that the government signed with the RUF rebels in July 1999 in a bid to end an eight-year civil war. RUF rebels have killed and maimed thousands, hacking off the arms and legs of civilians.

A subsequent investigation found that troops were poorly trained and equipped and didn't understand their mandate.

The Indian Mission's spokesman said India has been in Sierra Leone for over two years, starting with a medical unit in July 1998 in the former U.N. observer mission, and with UNAMSIL since its inception last year.

"We have reiterated our commitment to U.N. peacekeeping, and offered the services of our forces in any other U.N. mission where we may be needed," the spokesman said.

Western diplomats, caught by surprise by the Indian announcement, said they believed the decision was based at least in part on the government's feeling that the Sierra Leone burden needed to be spread among other countries. After Nigeria, which has more than 3,100 troops in Sierra Leone, India maintains the largest force size with 3,059 personnel.

Jordan, which has the third largest contingent at about 1,800 has made similar complaints in recent days, calling for NATO and other industrialized countries to send in troops, western diplomats said.

The mission itself has changed dramatically since India signed on, with the rebels flouting the 1999 peace agreement the peacekeepers were dispatched to monitor.

India is also said to be smarting from general criticism, even from Annan himself, of the mission following the hostage-taking incidents and of the force commander in particular.

The Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that during the May hostage crisis, Jetley wrote a memo accusing Nigerian officers in the peacekeeping mission and the West African peacekeeping force that preceded it of undermining the peace operation and trafficking in diamonds.

Nigerian army commander, Lt. Gen. Victor Malu, said no Nigerian soldiers or officers had ever been found with diamonds, or been engaged in diamond mining.